We learned late last week without notice that Mayor
Bowser will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the city's planned
development of the McMillan site on Wednesday, December 7th at 11am (see
announcement here). So what's up with that? The D.C. Court of Appeals
has not yet handed down a decision on the case, and no building/demolition
permits have been issued for the site, right? That's
correct. The Friends of McMillan Park is the lead plaintiff in
that challenge of the D.C. zoning and historic preservation decisions
enabling the project, and we'd know right away if the court had handed down a
decision. It hasn't. We think the decision may come in January 2017.

So why is the Mayor doing this?
DMPED and the Office of the Mayor are not exactly on
speaking terms with the Friends of McMillan Park, so they haven't confided in
us what's behind all this. But we suspect that what motivates the permit
applications and this groundbreaking event is the fact that a number of key
entitlements that the city awarded to enable the project are about to
expire. The zoning order that approved the first stage Planned
Unit Development (PUD) for the site in November, 2014 (zoning order in
case 13-14) and the land disposition and surplussing legislation from the D.C.
Council dated December 2014, and perhaps other subsidiary documents, expire
after two years from issuance, which is right about now. So, we presume,
these actions -- groundbreaking and permit application -- are formal gestures
sufficient to make sure these entitlements don't expire. Looking at this
from the city's point of view, if the court were to rule in the city's favor
(which we of course do not want nor expect), but the PUD and other key
entitlements had expired, the city would have to redo all the
expired entitlements supporting the project. If you'd like to
see the permits the city has applied for, visit the DCRA permits pageand look for 2940 North Capitol
Street, NW, the mythical address of this yet-unbuilt project. For those of you
anxious to have a look tonight, DCRA has taken down the page for maintenance
but it should be back up Monday.

So if that's the case, that this is not
actually the beginning of demolition/construction on the project, why didn't
DMPED and the Mayor say so in the event announcement? We wish
we knew. The Washington Business Journal immediately picked up on
the fact that this matter is not even out of court yet. The
city's announcement did not say that construction would begin right away,
but it led a lot of people to assume that. The city has not been too open
or transparent in this process, so at least they're consistent.
Other than extending the life of the entitlements and sowing widespread
confusion, the city is doing nothing of substance with this groundbreaking
ceremony that we know of. Have a good time, RSVP for the event, and
please extend to her honor the Mayor continued assurances of our highest
consideration.